The controversy over a recently erected cell phone tower is about to heat up again.
The zoning hearing board will have a hearing July 31 to entertain the argument by Crown Castle Towers and Chester and Terry Rea that the borough's zoning ordinance is invalid because it doesn't permit communications towers and related antennae and equipment.
Zoning hearing board Solicitor Mathew Simon said the hearing is a continuance of a June 24 hearing. At that time, First Street resident Brian Sterner appealed a building permit issued Jan. 16 by Building Inspection Underwriters inspector Allen Ayres.
Building Inspection Underwriters, a code enforcement company that conducts construction inspections and plan review services on behalf of contractors and municipalities, is responsible for issuing building permits for Leechburg.
Ayres is no longer the building inspector in the borough, according to Mayor Chuck Pascal.
Pascal said Ayres was reassigned to a different community by Building Inspection and replaced by Mark Stanton.
"We didn't ask for that to happen, it just happened," Pascal said.
Ayres' supervisor, Chuck Kovac, was unavailable for comment.
Chester and Terry Rea own the parcel of land near Hill Road and First Street where the communications tower is located. The Reas entered into an agreement with Crown Castle last September.
Terms of the agreement have not been made public.
A call to the Reas was not returned.
According to an application filed by Crown Castle and the Reas, the communication tower was placed off Madison Avenue to improve wireless signal to the residents and travelers of surrounding areas. The location of the tower was determined by the borough's terrain and Federal Communications Commission license requirements.
The application says after entering into an agreement with the Reas, Ayres, the building inspector at the time, was contacted to obtain a building permit.
It was then that Crown Castle was informed that no land-use approvals other than a building permit were required to construct the tower.
The 225-foot communication tower near the borough's water tower has caused a lot of controversy since it was built in an R-1 zoning district, which is intended only for single-family houses.
Many residents had no clue that a tower was about to go up because the legal advertisement was not published in their hometown newspapers, The Valley News Dispatch and The Leader Times.
However, Ayres said at a council meeting April 20 that he issued the permit because the cell phone tower falls under a height-restriction exemption dealing with radio towers.
Pascal said the ordinance states that exemptions have to be approved by the planning commission.
The planning commission never addressed the issue because Crown Castle never presented a plan.
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Leechburg replaces zoning officer in tower issue
Source: Pittsburgh Tribune- Review
Date: 07/21/2008
